16. The So-Called Luck in Quests "Ugh. Chief, you smiled. How ominous." I_Am_A_Poor_Man rubbed at his goose b.u.mps.
"G.o.ds. Poorie, come pinch me. Am I dreaming?" Shooting_Chang"e_From_Below_The_Moon"s eyes were as big as plates and his jaw dropped. His whole expression could only be described as "Error: cannot compute".
"Okay."
Bang!
"Ouch. That hurts. Why did you hit me with your book?"
HereticKing ignored his two lively subordinates and continued the glorious task of deleting messages.
He just knew he"d receive all sorts of rubbish messages from random strangers as soon as the server-wide announcement rang out. Some mocked him, some congratulated him…It irritated him to the extreme. He originally intended to end it all by putting his messaging and whispers settings to "Friends Only" but then he spotted a familiar name while skimming through the list - LuckyCat.
When he opened up LuckyCat"s message, he saw only two simple words but they conveyed so much more sincerity than those flowery nonsensical messages.
In a glance, his mood instantly turned for the better. He didn"t think that little guy would still remember him. He replied to that message only and deleted the rest. But since his mood was better now, those annoying messages weren"t so annoying now. With a tap, one message was destroyed. It"s easier than killing monsters.
"What a pity. If it wasn"t because of that committee meeting for something or what-not, Chief would be the first to hit Level 100. That Wings dude was lucky."
Wings, full name Angel Wings, was one of the top guilds in the server. GloryOfTheWorld was Wings"s Guild Leader. Initially, Wings and HereticKing"s guild, Heretic Demons, didn"t interact much. However, one had a righteous name and the other had an evil name so the first reactions players had were that they were rivals. Add on the fact that large guilds always have issues with the others s.n.a.t.c.hing grinding spots or bosses, the situation became tense. The more such situations were talked about, the more fantastical such issues became. Now, these two guilds became actual rivals.
"But the top 3 guild"s Guild Leaders all reached Level 100 at nearly the same time. I suspect it was intentionally made so by the game," Below_The_Moon who had switched back to the main topic deduced.
"There might not only be 3. They just won"t be announced to everyone by the game."
"That"s also possible. Then the game intentionally made everyone equal at the starting line so that everyone can see clearly who"s better." If it"s as Poor_Man said, there"s more than 3, then it"s very likely all of the reputable guilds would have at least 1 Level 100 player in them.
"Moon, how far away are you?" HereticKing, who had finally gotten rid of all his messages, said.
"2% left. I should be able to accept the Level 100 Quest before 12."
"Ugh. Please don"t be a SS-rank again. Pfft." I_Am_A_Poor_Man patted Below_The_Moon on the shoulder in comfort but still couldn"t resist spoiling the effect in the end. He recalled the SS-rank quest Below_The_Moon received last time: Steal the egg of the Level 130 Dragon King within 15 days. At the thought of it, he couldn"t resist laughing. Below_The_Moon had returned all pale and dusty when he was killed within seconds by the Dragon King. Even his hair was charred. His usual princely demeanour was nowhere to be seen.
"= =+ It"s at least better that Chief"s last 3S quest…" Before Below_The_Moon finished his sentence, he snuck a peak at HereticKing only to find the other was squinting unhappily. Below_The_Moon had immediately swallowed the last half of the sentence back to where it came from.
If one had to comment on HereticKing"s luck in quests, then it can only be said to be the best in the whole wide world. Not only did he successfully obtained a hidden Profession, he even finished the final hidden quest of a newbie village - Among the Level 1 to 99 monsters, kill 100 monsters each of 10 species of each level. HereticKing was then rewarded with a top-tier storage ring with 1000 slots.
In AO where the average number of slots found in a storage ring was 200 or so, this ring was considered an ultimate warehouse that went everywhere with its user. Even trying to fill it up was a heavy task by itself. It"s a pity HereticKing disliked it for having too many slots. He threw it back into Storage and continued using his high-grade white-gold bracelet with 300 slots. It made all who knew about it quiver in agony for a long while. If it wasn"t account-bound, they"d really try stealing it for themselves. There was even a time where they"d suspect their chief"s luck stat was at max. They ached to tear away those question marks to see how high that number was.
Nevertheless, such great luck in quests became terrible when used on Job Change quests. Not everyone could draw a 3S quest. The first time HereticKing drew his Level 100 Quest, he drew the quest to subjugate the Level 140 Human-type boss, King Ceres. How was he meant to subjugate that? Force was definitely a no-go. Seduction? Put aside the issue of HereticKing being not interested in men, he"s not even interested in Caucasian beauties. King Ceres is Caucasian and a man!
So no even if that King Ser-something was the ultimate beauty in a Westerner"s eyes, he"s no different than a Western monkey in HereticKing"s eyes. But strangely, when HereticKing was teleported to that king"s palace, the two of them stared at each other for 3 days and 3 nights. In the end, it was actually that king who fell in love with HereticKing"s cold nature and began offering everything he could to the other. Still, at the final moment before HereticKing could complete the quest, he couldn"t resist it anymore. He pulled his sword and stabbed at the man who was about to pounce on him. In the end, he was slaughtered by a group of Level 130 guards = =.
That was the greatest humiliation in all of HereticKing"s quests.
"Mmhm. When it"s your time to draw a Level 100 Quest, I"ll be right there laughing at you." Below_The_Moon changed the topic. Teasing the chief had dire consequences.
"Tsk. I"ll definitely go for it behind your backs. I won"t tell you about it even if I failed."
"Alright. Go grind. I"ll go craft poison."
"Good day, o gracious Chief."
"Speaking of which, Poorie, you finished collecting all the Zombie Mucus Chief wanted? The taste of Zombie Cave isn"t bad, right?" Below_The_Moon retorted.
"I wouldn"t know. I never went in." I_Am_A_Poor_Man played the fool and blinked his wide innocent eyes.
"No way. You made a request? Someone would go into that disgusting cave for that tiny sum? Aren"t you the one who"s always crying about how poor you are?"
"Tee-hee. I"ve got a cute little friend who"s helping me grind them. He"d grind at the same time." I_Am_A_Poor_Man didn"t think he"d receive so many ingredients every day. Did the kid sink himself into the game all day long and not go to cla.s.s? That"s why he"d frequently mail over some grilled fish and cakes out of guilt. There were even a few times when he couldn"t help but remind the other to focus on his health. It wasn"t urgent. But in the end, the reply he got was just a huge pile of materials as usual and the line "It"s fine."
"Where did you go to find child labour?"
"Shoo! Only adults can play this game, alright? That child"s quite good. I"ll introduce him to you when we have time." It"s all because of something he"d done out of sheer whim. He didn"t think the kid would be that sincere and help without accepting a single cent. It"s rare to find such kids nowadays.
"Achoo~" Bai XiaoYu who was currently challenging a high-level zombie sneezed. His hand shook. The spell missed and hit another monster. XiaoYu hurriedly rushed back into the portal back up. Luckily, he"d been wandering near the portal in the event he needed to escape in an instant.
Could it be he"s been staying in this stifling cave for far too long? He"d better end his training early today since he can"t sleep in the inn today. Once he went offline, he"d better exercise his body which had been soaking in nutritional fluids for forever.
"Little one, I"ll come and play with you again in 2 more days." Ever since he"d entered the game, this was the first time he"d be apart from the tiny cat. XiaoYu was quite reluctant to do so.
"Meow~" The little cat rubbed its head against XiaoYu"s hand as if to say it"s alright.